NBC’s ‘Talent’ hits 5-year high

CBS doesn't do much with Anthony news special

NBC crushed the competition on Tuesday behind three hours of ”America’s Got Talent,” which hit a five-year high among young adults. CBS, meanwhile, drew a modest audience for its hourlong special on the Casey Anthony trial.

According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, the regular two-hour installment of ”America’s Got Talent” averaged a 4.5 rating/12 share in adults 18-49 and 15.5 million viewers overall from 9 to 11. In adults 18-49, ”Talent” slightly outperformed the Tuesday performance finale of the Peacock’s ”The Voice” last Tuesday and came within a tick of its own series high , a 4.6 rating established with its premiere in June 2006. In total viewers, the 15.5 million is the largest ever for a non-finale episode.

Giving ”Talent” a boost from 9 to 11 p.m. was a special hourlong auditions episode of the show that kicked off the night in dominant fashion for NBC (3.4/11 in 18-49, 12.2 million viewers overall) , topping the combined scores of the next two highest-rated networks in 18-49 (a 3.1 for ABC and Fox).

Elsewhere, Fox ran second in 18-49, as ”MasterChef” (2.1/6 in 18-49, 4.8 million viewers overall) showed nice week-to-week gains, building on its lead-in from a repeat of ”Kitchen Nightmares” (1.5/5 in 18-49, 3.5 million viewers overall).

ABC was lower than usual kicking off the night as ”Wipeout” aired a repeat (1.6/5 in 18-49, 5.1 million viewers overall), but newbies ”101 Ways to Leave a Game Show” (1.9/5 in 18-49, 4.9 million viewers overall) and ”Combat Hospital” (1.1/3 in 18-49, 4.3 million viewers overall) were flat week to week. ”101 Ways” was up sharply over the episode of gameshow ”Downfall” that aired in the hour on the same week a year ago.

And CBS, fourth in 18-49 and second in total viewers, was paced by a repeat of ”NCIS” (1.4/4 in 18-49, 8.9 million viewers overall). Following a repeat of ”NCIS: Los Angeles” at 9 (1.1/3 in 18-49, 7.0 million viewers overall), a special ”48 Hours Mystery” at 10 p.m. on the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial settled for a 1.2/3 in 18-49 and 5.5 million viewers overall.